Executive Summary
Indigenous peoples suffer the greatest inequities in the world, resulting from generations of historical trauma caused by colonization and its after-effects, including poverty, racism, poor health care and education, and devastating losses of children to foster care. The parent-child relationship in early life is core to children’s healthy development, but Indigenous parent-child relationships are under constant threat. Our solution: culturally-grounded home education to break cycles of despair paired with Indigenous playspaces.
We will scale the evidence-based, Indigenous home-visiting program, Family Spirit®, proven to promote parenting, mental health and children’s positive developmental trajectories. Partners include Indigenous communities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Family Spirit will be taught by local home visitors to parents from pregnancy through age 5. To extend our impact, we will layer in a new synergistic approach: nature-based intergenerational playspaces to promote the power of communal play and Indigenous family-based traditions.
Lead Organization
Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health
Charity, fund, non-governmental organization, religious institution, school, or other entity
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Accomplishments
In our planning year, we have built strong relationships with partners, developed shared principles for working together and each outlined a pathway for reclaiming our children’s futures through home-visiting in our communities. This has included welcoming local program leaders from all partner countries, providing services to families at the first project demonstration site on Navajo Nation, initiating 8 additional sites chosen from across the United States, and developing plans for the customization of the home-visiting curriculum and the nature-based, intergenerational playspaces. A highlight of our work thus far has been a full team gathering of Indigenous program leaders, elders, culture keepers, researchers and home visitors, on Indigenous lands, with Indigenous ceremonies and ways of working together guiding our work. The relationship building has set a strong foundation for the next 5 years of collaboration, integration and innovation. We are grateful for this opportunity to _Build a World of Play._
